People queue up outside Lyon Village Community House before casting their votes in Arlington, Virginia, yesterday.
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia: From storm-ravaged New Jersey to a sun-kissed California, millions of Americans lined up yesterday to vote in the dramatic climax of a hard-fought race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Many were patient. Some were jittery. Still others — especially those enduring power outages and the mountains of debris left by superstorm Sandy last week —were understandably a bit cranky.
For many, a palpable sense of excitement hung over what they saw as a crossroads for deeply divided and economically struggling America, with citizens choosing between two men with very different visions.
“It’s very exciting, I love the turnout,” said Cal Alde of Falls Church, Virginia, outside Washington, who sported a festive star-spangled top hat and a “Keep Obama and carry on” T-shirt after casting his vote.
“But we’re biased,” added his colleague Will Farnam, wearing a pro-Obama badge while breakfasting on a bagel at Starbucks. “There are a lot of Romney people out there... It’s going to be tight.”
“We’re excited on both sides,” said Caitrin McCarron, a Republican supporter in nearby Arlington, Virginia.
“Virginia is obviously a battleground state,” she said, using the American political lingo for a hotly-contested state where the result could swing the final national outcome.
“Everyone is coming out and excited and hopefully, by the end of the night, we’ll know who is going to be our next president.”
In New Jersey, reeling from superstorm Sandy which left thousands suddenly homeless last week, voters waited in line impatiently amid rubble and rotting rubbish.
In Hoboken, across the Hudson River from New York City, one makeshift polling station was 40 minutes late in opening, drawing complaints from the 60 or so people in line. “Please excuse the appearance of this place,” a poll worker told the crowd. “Two days ago, it was under two feet of water.”
By mid-day, the waiting time at one polling station in Fairfax County outside Washington was three hours, a reporter said.
Voters in the battleground state of Ohio were wrestling with unusually long ballot papers due to the fact that they were voting not only for the next US president, but also for changes to the state constitution. “I think that if you had not done some homework, it was very confusing,” said Annie Hamilton, a Democrat in University Heights, outside Cleveland.
In Chicago, on the other hand, few voters were seen when polls opened at dawn — possibly a reflection of how many, like president Obama himself, took advantage of early voting opportunities.
By some estimates, more than a third of Americans voted early — something the Obama campaign actively encouraged.
In another battleground state, Florida, which decided the 2000 election for George W Bush, long lines formed early at polling stations as weather forecasters warned of thunderstorms later in the day.
The first results, by tradition, were tallied in Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, both in New Hampshire, shortly after midnight (0500 GMT). Obama and Romney each received five votes in Dixville Notch. In Hart’s Location, Obama had 23 votes to nine for Romney and two for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
In southern California, a mariachi band walked the streets of Van Nuys early in the day, stirring up the Latino vote for Obama with popular tunes like “La Bikina.”
Agencies
